A Glow In The Darkness Is The Best Gift Of All

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Jennie

Thank you, Bruce, for posting one of Craig Wilson’s columns.  He was a weekly writer for USA Today, “The Final Word” – what a Christmas delight.  Yes, it is a reminder of how simple and magical the season can be.

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Grandma Moses

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Jennie
Queen of Christmas: the wondrous snowy landscapes that made Grandma Moses as big as Jackson Pollock

THEGUARDIAN.COM
Queen of Christmas: the wondrous snowy landscapes that made Grandma Moses as big as Jackson Pollock.

As soon as I saw this article, shared by the Bennington Museum in Bennington, VT, I knew I needed to tell her story, my story, and the museum’s story.

Let’s start with Grandma Moses, her story and very interesting life, told by THEGUARDIAN:

The upstate New York farmer took up painting at 76 and was soon a star, her ‘old-timey’ scenes proving perfect for stamps, curtains and Christmas cards – saving her from a life of raising chickens.

I had always wanted to paint,” Anna Mary Robertson Moses once said. “But I just didn’t have time – until I was 76.” The artist, who became known as Grandma Moses, was hailed for her wide-eyed, childlike wonder which she channelled into paintings of often wintry landscapes depicting scenes of daily life.

Born in 1860, the third of 10 children raised on a farm in upstate New York, Moses became a servant for a wealthy neighbouring farmhouse at the age of 12, carrying out domestic duties such as cooking, sewing and cleaning. After 13 years of this, she married Thomas Salmon Moses and the couple went on to have 10 children – with only five surviving past infancy. Never wealthy, they settled on farms in Virginia and later in upstate New York, where Moses made crisps on the side for extra income.

In 1927, after Thomas died from a heart attack, their son Forrest was tasked with helping his mother look after the farm. When Moses later moved in with her daughter, she adopted the monikers Mother Moses or Grandma Moses, and her life began to change. Although she was a lifelong embroiderer, who had spent her evenings making quilts for friends and relatives, she developed arthritis at the age of 76. It was the mid-1930s and Moses turned instead to painting, after her sister suggested that a brush might be easier to hold than a needle. “If I didn’t start painting,” Moses once joked, “I would have raised chickens.”

Painting from her vivid imagination – without even an easel and using her bedroom or kitchen as a studio – Moses drew on the joyous memories of her long life. She employed simple, formulaic methods, painting from the top down. “First the sky,” she said, “then the mountains, then the hills, then the trees, then the houses, then the cattle and then the people.” But most of all, painting was a way to recreate the “old-timey” country landscapes of her past. Moses would paint for five hours straight. “I’ll get an inspiration,” she said, “and start painting; then I’ll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.”

Her output was prolific and she soon found success. Within a matter of years, after showing her paintings alongside her homemade jam at the local county fair, her work was “discovered” by a prominent New York collector, who saw it in a drugstore window. Gallery representation soon followed and, by 1939, Moses had featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, affirming her status as a household name.

Did 25 paintings at the age of 100 … Grandma Moses.
Did 25 paintings at the age of 100 … Grandma Moses. Photograph: PhotoQuest/Getty Images

With her shows breaking attendance records, Moses was soon exhibiting in more than 30 states and in countries across Europe. Branching out into commercial markets, her paintings appeared on US stamps, jam jars, curtains and greetings cards, particularly Christmas ones. Hallmark alone sold 16 million Moses cards in 1947. She was even thought to be more popular than Jackson Pollock. When Life magazine published an article about Pollock in 1949, Moses was the reason it had to write its subhead as a question: “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”

Having dedicated most of her life to household chores, Moses spent the following three decades producing over 1,500 paintings, until her death at 101. An astonishing 25 were painted after she turned 100. When Moses painted landscapes in different seasons, she kept her trademark style, omitting any signs of industrialisation and instead focusing on the natural landscape.

This gave the results a timeless feel but it is her snow-filled scenes – filled with glitter for a shimmering effect – that evoke the delights of winter, with their powdered-lined roofs, burning chimneys, white speckled trees, children in mismatched hats and scarves sledging or helping to carry logs. Even the looming grey sky in 1946’s Out for Christmas Trees appears more inviting than ominous.

Moses’s paintings are celebrations of life. Viewing them almost like a diary, she said: “I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, as I thought of it, as I remembered all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones and unpleasant ones, that is how they come and that is how we have to take them.”

In 1960, as she celebrated turning 100, the governor of New York declared 7 September, her birthday, Grandma Moses Day – and Life magazine put her on the cover.

Personally, I like the December 28, 1953 TIME magazine cover.

What is it about winter?  Do you see the background?  The article focuses on her winter paintings, too.

They are special.  Irving Berlin had one.  I have seen them – up close.  She had a secret- very fine white glitter.  You can only see it looking closely at the painting.  It made a difference.

I saw these winter paintings at the Bennington Museum.  Did you know the museum is the primary ‘keeper’ of Grandma Moses art?  Their display is wonderful.  They also have artifacts, such as her brushes, paints, table, chair, and a jar of her fine white glitter.  They have an interview running on a screen with Grandma Moses and Edward R. Murrow.  It is priceless.

My childhood was spent staring at a Grandma Moses painting with a hill and a gray barn.  It hung in the breakfast room, so every breakfast and lunch I looked at that painting.  It spoke to me.  Grandma Moses speaks to many people.  When Hubby and I moved to Massachusetts we were anxious to see the Grandma Moses exhibit.  Well, I couldn’t wait!  There is nothing better than ‘live’, from music to art.  I was in heaven.  I felt like a child.

The Bennington Museum is special to me in two ways, because that first visit was about Grandma Moses (expected), and also about their Haitian quilts exhibit (unexpected), the beginning of Milly the Quilter.  For new bloggers, Milly the Quilter had an amazing 10-year span in my classroom.  Our quilts are on big-time display.  More importantly, Milly was like Grandma Moses.  She understood and treasured the simple things in life, and turned them into an adventure.

Thank you Grandma Moses and Milly.  You get it.  You have made a huge contribution to this world.  The children in my class will forever remember.

Jennie

P.S. Grandma Moses’s first childhood memory was driving into town on a horse and buggy.  She saw black drapings everywhere and people crying.  Abraham Lincoln had died.  She was five years old.

Posted in art, Imagination, Inspiration, museums, quilting, The Arts, wonder | Tagged , , , | 72 Comments

Army Navy

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Jennie

This is a post from last year’s Army/Navy game.  I couldn’t say it better, and it bears repeating.  Today’s game was equally exciting.  I must add that next year’s Army/Navy game will be held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.  Yes, here!  I am already excited and have reached out for tickets.  It’s far more than a football game, it’s an event, and… well, read on.

Today was the 122nd Army-Navy football game.  I watch it every year.  I am glued, because it is far more than a football game.  It is a rivalry between brothers.  I call it a ‘band of brothers’, much like how it was in WWI and WWII.  They are warriors on the football field, and the war field.  They live their lives with respect, purpose, honor, integrity, and kindness.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our son was a Naval Academy graduate in 2003.  When he was in high school, he was assigned to a Blue and Gold Officer, someone who could answer his questions, and judge if he had the ‘right stuff’.  The three words he said have resonated with me ever since:

Ship.  Shipmate.  Self.

It’s what the Navy lives by.  It’s Life-101.  First take care of your ship, then take care of your shipmate.  Lastly take care of yourself.  Ever since I heard those three words I have incorporated that philosophy into my teaching and classroom.  Modern terms say ‘kindness’ and ‘giving’.  The Navy knew that well over 100 years ago.

I was lucky to attend the 100th Army-Navy football game.  That was when I understood.  The stands were full of people who could have been my dear friends.  Honestly, I could have left my seat and asked someone nearby to watch my belongings.  There were ‘Spirit Spots’, spoofs made by the Midshipmen and Black Knights on the giant video screen.  Parachuters landed on the 50-yard line.  The home team ran the football from Annapolis to the stadium.  I got an email today from a friend who was stuck in traffic outside of New York; Army (this year’s home team) was running the football into the stadium.  Our son was part of Navy’s 13th Company who ran the ball from Annapolis onto the field in 1999.


Army was cheering today.

‘
Navy was cheering today.  That is my great nephew.

Tradition runs deep.  Tradition is a foundation.  It builds who we are.  The tradition at the end of the Army-Navy game is singing the Alma Mater.  That’s ship.  The team who wins joins the other team as they sing their Alma Mater.  That’s Shipmate.. The team who wins then sings their own Alma Mater.  That’s Self.


Army singing their Alma Mater


Navy singing their Alma Mater

The Naval Academy has a beautiful Japanese brass bell on the campus (now a replica), a gift from Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854.  The bell is only rung when Navy beats Army.  It has been a number of years since the ringing of that bell.  Tradition lives on.  When that bell rings, winning the football game is important, yet what that win means is far more important – hard work, brotherhood, team work… and all the values of Army-Navy football.

Jennie

Posted in America, Expressing words and feelings, Family, Inspiration, Learning About the World, military | Tagged , , | 43 Comments

beginning…

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Jennie

Thank you, Beth, for sharing this beautiful video of reindeer under the aurora from the Aurora Borealis Observatory.

beth's avatarI didn't have my glasses on....

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=787006252392996

Aurora Borealis Observatory

 Reindeer under the aurora

—

“i always believe that the sky is the beginning of the limit.”

-MC Hammer

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Family, and a Trip into Boston

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Jennie

Family!  That word is powerful, for it’s how we grow, and how we ‘become’.  It is our source of support and extended love, even though it can be tumultuous at times.

I tell my preschool class that we are a family, because we are.  I share my own family stories.  I’ll be sharing today’s events with them, too.  They are filled with adventure, worry, help, wonder, and sticking together.  That’s what we do at school as a family, and that’s what I did with my family.


Our daughter and grandchildren arrived from the west coast.
It’s been over a year.

Today we went into Boston.  The New England Aquarium was #1 on the list.  Riding the train and taking the subway was #2.  It was not easy.  Navigating Boston’s commuter rail system is not for the faint of heart.  The first stop was the train station.


All the train lines are purple.

At last we arrived at North Station in Boston.  It’s the central location where every subway line connects.  In Boston it’s called the T, not the subway.  This is where we felt alone and a little worried.  Hey, I’ve ridden the T, but when you’re at the hub of all the connecting lines, it is very daunting.

We figured it out.  Of course!  That’s what families do.  The ticket to get onto the T is a Charlie Card.  My goodness, I didn’t know Charlie Cards were still around.

When I was a teenager and played the ukulele, everybody’s favorite song was M.T.A. by the Kingston Trio.  The song is about a man named Charlie and riding the M.T.A. in Boston.  Today the cards are named for Charlie.  And people call the M.T.A. the T.


We were on our way!

We were on the Orange Line and needed to connect to the Blue Line.  Does that statement alone make you feel a little stressed or worried?  As soon as we got off the Orange Line, we followed the path… yet there was no Blue Line.  We ended up outside on the street.  For those of you who have never been to Boston, the city is a wonderful mix of old and new.  The streets are narrow and winding, the opposite of cities with streets built on a grid.

Our goal, our destination, was the New England Aquarium.  We had an address, but GPS walking directions were terrible.  It’s been ages since I walked around the center of Boston.  We felt very alone, a teeny bit worried, and just needed a good map; a fold-out map that shows where you are in relation to everything else.  Why doesn’t everyone realize this is a golden tool?

Someone saw us and must have realized we needed help.  Yes, good people are everywhere.  Really.  A point in the right direction and we were on our way.  Walking in Boston was delightful, once we (kind of) knew where we were going.

We arrived at the New England Aquarium.  It is world famous in teaching about ocean life, and their animal rescues.  Outside the museum are pools of sea lions, tanks of sharks, and more.  Inside the museum is the exhibit of penguins in a natural habitat.

They swim, dive, climb rocks, spar with other penguins, and more.

Then comes the main exhibit, a gigantic round fish tank that is the central part of the aquarium.  People walk up and around the tank, watching fish that live on the ocean floor, to watching fish that live close to the surface.

There are many individual tanks of ocean life.


The old tortoise at the top of the big tank made me smile,
I wanted to watch him for hours.


This was my favorite.

Family is always an adventure, ups and downs, laughs and tears.  It’s a good thing that love is the glue.

Jennie

Posted in Family, Love, museums, Nature, trains, wonder | Tagged , , , | 72 Comments

Rainbows

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Jennie

 “Jennie!  Come quick!  There’s a rainbow in the bathroom.”

What a surprise.
Everyone clamored into the bathroom
for a look, to put their hands onto the rainbow.
The rainbow miraculously appeared on little hands.
Sometimes wonder needs no words.

The sun was starting to come into the classroom.
Children decided to build with colored translucent blocks,
hoping to get a rainbow.

The colors were beautiful.
Look carefully, as ‘people’ are appearing
tucked away into every corner.
They’re the rainbow makers.

After snack the sunlight moved and streaked across the floor.
One of the colored blocks was on the floor, the red one,
and the floor was colored in red.
“Let’s make our own rainbow!  Everyone, grab a block
and put it on the floor in the sunlight.”

Did you know that a silent smile is more powerful than
a loud applause?

Jennie

Posted in art, Inspiration, Nature, Teaching young children, wonder | Tagged , , , | 67 Comments

My Teacher Lightbulb Moment – Part 2

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Jennie

In Part 1 I wrote about the moment a child and I smiled together, and how that was the start of my becoming a ‘real teacher’.

Part 2 is how I continued, and how my teaching grew.


I became ‘one’ with children.

Once I had my Lightbulb Moment, my teaching world turned upside down.  Children came first.  What they were interested in, who they were as children/people mattered most.  I needed to get to know them better.

I started to use a tape recorder to “interview” children, as this not only helped me to get to know them, but also was a good tool for language development (and it was fun).  Our curriculum at that time was France and learning about the old masters in art.  Young children love to paint, and they were practicing being artists with real palettes.  I was learning so much about them, why not have the children do an autobiography to accompany their work of art?  And, why not have the children name their work of art, and call it a ‘masterpiece’?  The result was so profound that we had an art show at school, and then moved the art show to our local post office for the community to enjoy.  What a success, and what a wonderful experience for the children.  Our art show has since become a yearly event in the community.

Again, the building blocks were growing, but now I began to realize that each block in itself was little.  Did using a palette or holding a microphone make a difference?  No.  So, where did the passion and love (and there was passion and love!) come from?  It was each block, over and over again, often hundreds of them, which made the difference.  I started to call this phenomenon “The Hundred Little Things”.  Now, my teaching and curriculum had become child centered.

From this point forward, I put the cart before the horse.  Smart thing!  That same year my husband asked me, out of the blue, why our children wanted to hear ‘I love you’ all the time.  “It’s the hundred little things”, I told him.  “It takes at least a hundred times for each little ‘I love you’ to really become meaningful”.

The next year my class went to the circus.  Of course we decided to have our own circus performance at school for our families, and I let the children decide what they wanted to do.  Again, a child-centered event eclipsed anything I could have planned.  Over the next few years, music, math games, and science exploration exploded.  Every child’s interest was a spark, and became a tool for learning.  I had learned so much and transferred the children’s love into a great preschool experience.

Little did I know that the best was yet to come.

I love museums.  In Philadelphia I visited the National Liberty Museum and was thunderstruck by their Peace Portal.  Instantly I knew this magnificent structure was something my classroom could recreate.  My years of following the love of the children had allowed me to embrace my own love, and give it back to the children.  Now the tables were turned, yet again.  I brought the idea back to school, and the children loved it!

They spent a large part of the school year designing a Peace Portal.  Then, they wrote a Peace Poetry Book, and designed a Peace Quilt, which still hangs in the Museum after nearly fifteen years.  Suddenly, the power of love had gone beyond the classroom.  The depth of this project was not only children’s building blocks, but my building blocks as well.  Yes, I could give the same passion and love, too.  Wow!  A combination of the two means a deep understanding and enthusiasm on all parts.  As such, the process and the product were wonderful.

The following year, the children really wanted to sing “God Bless America”.  Watching them sing amongst themselves, over and over, even in the sandbox on the playground, was a true ‘hundred little things’.  Again, we worked together, under the umbrella of love, to bring the song to soldiers, to making a book, and to designing a quilt that hangs at the Fisher House in Boston.

More events grew along the years.  Yet, there was something else woven into children and definitely into me – the love of books, stories, and reading aloud.  Throughout my journey of becoming a real teacher, that was the constant every day.  It helped my bond with children, it enhanced my curriculum, and grew with passion.  This remains the most important thing I do with children.

I am one of the few preschool teachers who chapter-reads to children.  I’ve been featured in the million copy bestseller The Read-Aloud Handbook (seventh edition) by Jim Trelease.  I have also been a live guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about reading aloud.  So much has grown and happened with reading that it deserves its own blog post.  Stay tuned!

Being a preschool teacher for many years has been a wonderful roller coaster of every emotion and of learning.  When I first became a preschool teacher, teaching happened first.  Thanks to Andrew, I know that love happens first, and then becomes the catalyst to develop deep relationships with children, and therefore a rich curriculum.  The ‘hundred little things’ proves that to be true.  Pay attention, as love is there.  You just need to see it.  It can change your life.  It changed mine.

Jennie

Posted in Early Education, Expressing words and feelings, Inspiration, Jim Trelease, joy, Love, preschool, quilting, reading aloud, School, Teaching young children | Tagged , , | 104 Comments

Education Quotations

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Jennie

Here are outstanding quotations on education from Charles French. Even the earliest scholars understood children and how they learn best. Curiosity is the spark that ignites education.

frenchc1955's avatarcharles french words reading and writing

Margaret_Mead_NYWTS

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

                                                                              Margaret Mead

thomas-881249_960_720

(https://pixabay.com)

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

                                                                              Thomas Paine

1920px-Plato_Silanion_Musei_Capitolini_MC1377

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

                                                                              Plato

001

“Education is essential for the improvement of humanity, and it must continue throughout a person’s life. We are never too young nor too old to learn. We must embrace curiosity about the world around us, and we should learn every day of our lives.”

                                                           …

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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Jennie

Happy Thanksgiving


Our gigantic turkey

From my school to your house,
may you enjoy a turkey dinner with family and friends.

Most importantly, may you enjoy loved ones
and the many things to be thankful for.

I am thankful for you, my blogging friends.

Jennie

Posted in America, Expressing words and feelings, Family, Giving thanks, preschool, Thanksgiving | Tagged , , | 65 Comments

My Teacher Lightbulb Moment – Part 1

Posted on November 21, 2022 by Jennie

Fellow blogger Don at Don Ostertag: Off Stage recently commented, “If only other teachers were children at heart.”

It hit home with me, because that is when I became a ‘real’ teacher.  That’s when I found my heart.  No, that’s when I melded with children’s hearts.

It happened like this…

I was always a good teacher.  I planned exciting lessons.  Children loved me.  Parents were happy.  Yet, back then I never understood there was more to being a teacher.  Well, perhaps I never realized it at the time.

Early on in my preschool teaching, I interacted with children with the best of intentions, yet often struggled to feel that I had made a connection, much less a difference.  Even though I was always a caring and kind teacher, there was a self imposed ‘you and me wall’.  I was the teacher, and you were the student.  Teaching meant teaching information, in a caring environment.  Yes, I was a good teacher, but I didn’t fully understand how important love was until that day, thirty years ago.

It was nap time at school, late in the fall, the time of year when children and teachers were comfortable with each other.  There I was, lying on my back, looking across the classroom.  All the children were asleep, except Andrew, a child who was often distant and sometimes challenging.  He was the boy I had not really connected with.  He saw me, and I saw him.  We both smiled, simultaneously, knowing everybody else was asleep.

At that moment, there was nobody else on the whole earth.  It was just Andrew and me.  He knew it and I knew it.  This was deep, and forgiving, and enlightening.  I understood; love has no preconceived agenda.  It is ‘there’, regardless of circumstances.  Most importantly, love usually isn’t met with a lot of fanfare.  In fact, it is the little things that often express love.  The intensity of that moment is still with me.  It changed me.

It was my teacher lightbulb moment.

In education, I learned that if love comes first, then teaching becomes deeper, better, more focused, and more energized.  The children learn because I have put them first.

I had it backwards, carefully planning a curriculum and activities, and then fitting the children into those plans.  Not that it was bad or didn’t work; it just was…well, lacking the passion that comes from the heart of children. Oh, children know how a teacher really feels.  So, thanks to Andrew, I started to change.

First, lunchtime became a forum to learn about the children and really listen to them.  I learned so many little things, like the names of pets and grandparents, what a big brother does, the color of a bike.  These were little things, yet they became the building blocks.  We often debated deep subjects, such as if a girl can marry a girl, or if people go to heaven when they die.  Everyone’s opinion was valued.

The day that Kelly told us her dog, Bruno, had died; the class did not know what to say.  I told her that my dog had died years ago, and I was very sad.  Then, a child asked Kelly if she was sad.  The following thirty minutes was spent with heartfelt children telling each other about grandparents and pets who had died, and all the feelings and questions that naturally follow.  At that moment, lunch was far less important than what was happening, and could wait.  The building blocks were working.

The floodgates of real teaching opened.  It was a joy.

A number of bloggers have shared this video.  It’s a teacher who understands that all the academics can’t happen until there is a connection and love with teachers and children.

Stay tuned for Part 2, my journey of connecting with children and becoming a ‘real’ teacher.

Jennie

Posted in Early Education, Expressing words and feelings, Giving, Inspiration, joy, preschool, Teaching young children, wonder, young children | Tagged , , | 98 Comments